With over 65 pages, Batman: the Brave and the Bold remains one of the meatiest anthologies. It’s also the best anthology according to AIPT in our best of, so you know the anticipation was high for the eighth issue out this week. This edition features three stories continued from previous issues plus a one-shot. All told it’s an excellent collection of stories, each of which has plenty of pages to wrap up their tales or prepare readers for exciting conclusions.
First up is the third part in Guillem March’s “Batman: Pygmalion” story. This tale is action delivering on the climax of the story that features a man who thinks he’s Batman. He’s teamed up with Batman, and they’re up against a major Batman villain. March draws a hell of an action sequence with great fight moves on display and killer needle-drop moments. He’s also quite good at weaving the fake Batman family into the story, adding some emotional stakes. Running 22 pages long, it’s a whole issue and paced well from beginning to end.
Next, Kyle Starks and Fernando Pasarin’s Wild Dog tale continues, and we finally get to see who the primary villain is infiltrating the Midwest. Wild Dog continues to be a bit untethered from reality but still has a big heart. It’s as if Starks was born to write this wacko. Starks and Pasarin have him go up against a major hyper-macho neckbear gangster, and there are some fun disses on that type of person thrown in. Two more major scenes help carve out Wild Dog’s non-superhero life and set up the major villain. What makes this story work so well is its ability to take its time and unveil its characters, big or small, in realistic ways.
What could be better than one Batman? Two Batmans!
Credit: DC Comics
“Aquaman: Communion” part 2 gets even zanier as Gabriel Hardman has Aquaman team up with a gorilla to stop an alien invasion of Gorillas City. This chapter works as it uses flashbacks to fill us in on how the aliens got to Earth in the first place, then have them enact a plan to stop them. It ends on a great cliffhanger from the classic sci-fi pulps of the ’70s. Hardman’s art is excellent, with a gritty tone that works well with the threat Aquaman is facing. Matt Hollingsworth’s colors have a subdued tone that gives everything a realistic and edgier feel.
John Higgins’ “Angels in the Architecture” story closes the issue. Simply put, I couldn’t get into this tale. The blocking and flow of the visuals feel cramped and hard to follow, and the black and white don’t help with that. Some exciting visuals show off some high-tech holograms and the art is good when looked at in a vacuum, but it’s not easy to gauge what is happening. I felt confused and frustrated as I tried to follow what was happening.
All in all, Batman: the Brave and the Bold #8 is another excellent issue in one of the best anthologies released today. Three of the four stories were incredibly well told and drawn, with the fourth not quite working for me, but you never know. Maybe you’ll enjoy it too. That’s the beauty of anthologies.
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